Learning Modules

Clare Kruft

Watch this Introductory Video to Learning Modules. Then click on any topic area below to see specific Learning Modules in these areas.  The Learning Modules each have 10 small videos, strategies, or links with practical classroom ideas on the topic listed in the module title.  At the end of each Learning Module, you will earn a Certificate of Completion from Towson University for 2 professional learning hours. 

Content Areas for MLs

Early Childhood and Elementary Education for MLs

General Interest for All Classrooms with MLs

Literacy Practices–Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing for MLs

Range of Learners–Newcomers through Long-Term ELs

Secondary Education for MLs

Supporting MLs–Social-Emotional Learning, Trauma-Informed Practices, and Wellness

 

To get started, click on any bulleted module title below:

 

Content Areas for ML Learners

  • Math for Emerging Bilinguals (Coming Soon)
    Explore ideas to successfully engage your multilingual math students. 

 

Early Childhood and Elementary Education for MLs

 

General Interest for All Classrooms with MLs

  • Assessment for Multilingual Learners (Coming Soon)
    Explore different types of classroom assessments you can use to be culturally relevant and facilitate academic growth with your multilingual learners.
  • Building a Respectful and Caring Culture in the Classroom (Coming Soon)
    Examine practices that build relationships to allow your multilingual learners to feel physically and emotionally safe to take learning risks in your classroom and feel a sense of belonging in the class.
  • Building Vocabulary
    Learn practical strategies across content areas to enhance your multilingual students’ understanding of academic vocabulary.
  • Classroom Games for Multilingual Learners
    Engage your students with classroom games that can be safe, fun ways to practice new language skills in a non-threatening atmosphere full of intrinsic motivation!
  • Comprehensible Input for Multilingual Learners —  Explore how to make key words in objectives, directions, and reading passages understandable to your multilingual learners.
  • Culturally Responsive Practices for Multilingual Classrooms — Explore how to affirm the assets culturally diverse students bring to the classroom while creating a safe space for them to be valued as part of the classroom community.
  • Effective Classroom Practices with an English-Speaking Teacher (Coming Soon)
    Learn different approaches to communicating with and supporting your multilingual learners–even if the only language you speak is English. 
  • Spanish Basics for English-Speaking Teachers (Coming Soon)
    Practice helpful Spanish words and phrases for daily classroom experiences, for directions and objectives during lessons, and for communicating with families. 
  • Talk Stems and Sentence Starters (Coming Soon)
    Learn different types of scaffolds to help your multilingual learners at varying levels find success in showing what they know about the content objectives of your lessons. 
  • Translanguaging
    Understand translanguaging as a strategy that can be used in the classroom to value the assets your multilingual learners bring to new learning opportunities.

 

Literacy Practices–Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing for MLs

  • Creating Language Objectives for Any Subject (Coming Soon)
    Explore how you can help multilingual learners progress in learning your key content while also advancing their English language skills. 
  • Dual Immersion Classrooms (Coming Soon)
    Explore different types of classroom assessments you can use to be culturally relevant and to facilitate academic growth with your multilingual learners.
  • Science of Reading for Multilingual Learners (Coming Soon)
    Explore the key concepts behind successful, research-based reading instruction with a special emphasis on areas to support your multilingual learners. 
  • Writing with Multilingual Learners (Coming Soon)
    Explore how to use writing as a communication tool and a thinking tool in various content areas.  Learn how the writing process and writing scaffolds can enhance the achievement of your multilingual learners.

 

Range of Learners–Newcomers through Long-Term ELs

  • Dual-Identified Learners: Students Who Need ESOL and Special Education Services (Coming Soon)
    Explore practices to support all of your multilingual learners as you help to identify which ones may need to be referred for special education identification.  Learn strategies to modify and accommodate learning of your multilingual students who have been identified with an IEP or 504 Plan. 
  • Supporting Newcomers
    Explore different types of classroom assessments you can use to be culturally relevant and facilitate academic growth with your newly arrived multilingual learners.
  • Teaching Gifted and Talented Multilingual Learners (Coming Soon)
    Explore different strategies to challenge your gifted and talented multilingual learners as they progress with their English learning.
  • Teaching Long-Term English Learners (Coming Soon)
    Learn the reasons many students experience the challenge of becoming Long-Term English Learners and some ways to build on the assets and experiences of these learners to make progress. 

 

Secondary Education for MLs

 

Supporting MLs–Social-Emotional Learning, Trauma-Informed Practices, and Wellness

  • Social-Emotional Learning for Multilingual Learners
    Explore how attending to multilingual learners’ social-emotional support and development can help them become much more successful learners in your classroom.
  • Trauma-Informed Supports for Multilingual Learners
    Examine the effects of trauma that many immigrants experience in the transition from their native lands or in adjusting to life in a new country. Explore practical classroom suggestions to create a trauma-informed space for all of your learners.
  • Wellness for Teachers of Multilingual Learners
    Self-care sometimes gets a bad reputation because we may experience the concept as a message to address challenges in our profession by “fixing” or caring for ourselves.  This module approaches self-care from the perspective of what we can do not only as individuals at the personal level but also as a collective with our colleagues to impact our institutions and communities.